Photo Gallery Smile for the Dumpster!

Who says garbage collectors can't be creative? Sanitation workers in Hamburg created a sensation with their striking photographs taken with a dumpster converted into a pinhole camera. Now the campaign has won a prestigious advertising industry award.
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Sanitation workers in Hamburg have created a sensation with their striking photographs taken with a dumpster converted into a pinhole camera.

Foto: Roland Wilhelm/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Hans-Dieter Braatz positions the camera in Hamburg's Speicherstadt dockland area. The results are spectacular black-and-white images that quickly became an Internet and media sensation.

Foto: DPA/ Mirko Derpmann
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Hans-Dieter Braatz, who normally works as a truck driver for the sanitation department, took this photograph of the old docks in the port city.

Foto: Hans-Dieter Braatz/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friend
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Sanitation worker Roland Wilhelm had wanted to take this photograph for a long time. From a certain angle, the building looks like a film set.

Foto: Roland Wilhelm/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Another one of Roland Wilhelm's photographs. The campaign has just won a prestigious advertising industry award.

Foto: Roland Wilhelm/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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This photograph shows Hamburg's harbor.

Foto: Roland Wilhelm/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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The light enters the front of the dumpster through an 8-millimeter (0.3-inch) pinhole and is projected onto an 80-centimeter by 1 meter (31 inches by 39 inches) piece of photographic paper inside the container.

Foto: Werner Bünning/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Hamburg town hall: This is the only photograph where the dumpster was tilted.

Foto: Michael Pfohlmann/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Here, a shot the dumpster camera captured of the Hamburg Planetarium. The camera has no shutter. Instead, the exposure begins when the workers lift the small flap over the pinhole.

Foto: Bernd Leguttky/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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This photograph shows new buildings in Hamburg's prestigious HafenCity development.

Foto: Michael Pfohlmann/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Hamburg's narrow 17th-century streets are another subject.

Foto: Werner Bünning/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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This atmospheric photo shows a graveyard in the city's Altenwerder district.

Foto: Werner Bünning/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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"It's really something unique," Wilhelm told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Nobody expected it to be so successful."

Foto: Werner Bünning/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Exposing a photo in the 1,100-liter (290-gallon) bin takes between five and 70 minutes. The sanitation workers calculate the exact time with the help of a light meter.

Foto: Max Soller/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Nicole Nordt-Wulff, one of the city's few female sanitation workers, took this photograph of the town hall in Harburg, a district of Hamburg.

Foto: Nicole Nordt-Wulff/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Sanitation worker Hans-Peter Strahl operates the flap over the pinhole.

Foto: DPA/ Mirko Derpmann
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Taking photographs with the dumpster camera was more difficult than expected. Often the garbage collectors had to stop unsuspecting passersby from throwing their garbage into the camera.

Foto: Peter Hermann Schammer/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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The Hamburg sanitation department is very satisfied with the project. "It couldn't have gone any better," says company spokesman Andree Möller.

Foto: Hans-Dieter Braatz/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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This photo shows a carnival in Hamburg.

Foto: Bernd Leguttky/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Here, the Chilehaus building in central Hamburg.

Foto: Michael Pfohlheim/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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Here, the pinhole camera was put on top of a public barbecue to get a better angle.

Foto: Mirko Derpmann/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends
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An exhibition of the photographs begins on June 23 in the Axel Springer Passage exhibition space in Hamburg.

Foto: Werner Bünning/ Stadtreinigung Hamburg/ Scholz & Friends